Cadillac's product-development crew has taken to calibrating its newest cars' suspensions in Germany on the NÃÂÃÂ¼rburgring's Nordschleife. This paid big dividends on the CTS and CTS-V models, but honestly, it's difficult imagining the base STS in the same environment. It's just too soft. There's an available Sport package, but it puts the STS's price above $60,000. That's a pity, because the comfy-riding standard version was somewhat out of place in the hands of our manic testers.

In the domain of most Cadillac owners, this car is not at all a bad effort. It is roomy, with a good stiff structure and seriously strong powertrain. The five-speed automatic shifts smoothly and quickly, and the STS gets down the road with real authority. Its 0-to-60-mph dash was beaten by only two others here.

Inside this sanded-smooth version of Cadillac's edgy "art and science" origami styling is a lot of space, enough to allow our tallest driver to crank the cushion upward to avoid that sinking sensation. The STS accommodates four or five occupants about as well as the paragon of packaging, the 5-series BMW. To nobody's surprise, the STS also feels kind of large, with a big wheel and a cavernous sense of space.

The wide, flat seating surfaces fail to hold occupants in place with any real enthusiasm. But then, the soft suspension and the slithery Michelin Energy LX4 tires don't allow huge amounts of lateral acceleration. At 0.80 g, the Caddy is the least sticky in the group. It beat only the Jag and the electronically overly controlled Lexus in the lane-change maneuver. That was with the StabiliTrak system activated--the STS simply hangs out too far to clear the cones when unsupervised by electronics.

GM's StabiliTrak can be disabled, but this compensates only slightly for the enduring "push" you get in the mountains, with front tires that rolled over so far during hard cornering their brand names were all but buffed off the sidewalls. Ride motions are reasonably well arrested in our tester that did without the Sport package, but we'd like to see a little more damping.

The soft ride would be more in character if the trappings of luxury were suitably sybaritic. But here our jury found the STS to be a little short of sensual nirvana. The center console was criticized as hard and intrusive, and although frequently sought switches such as the mirror-adjust and lock buttons fell readily to hand, the stereo/function display was castigated as being as bad as iDrive; various setup memories are buried in there and are consequently inaccessible until the car is stopped.

True, these are mainly niggling complaints, but they add up. The car's keyless ignition system honks at you annoyingly if you leave the fob in the vehicle. The pull-type door handles operate electric latches, so there's a brief instant of nothing before the lock pops. The STS's power-adjustable steering column moves too fast, zooming past the sweet spot you're looking for. The STS is agonizingly close to meeting the challenge of the best, but we think the sensibilities of its makers could use a little fine-tuning.